Alexander Litvinenko: Profile of murdered Russian spy - BBC News BBC News Alexander Litvinenko: Profile of murdered Russian spy 21 January 2016 Close share panel Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Alexander Litvinenko fell ill after a meeting with former KGB contacts in London in 2006 A public inquiry into the killing of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has concluded that President Putin probably approved his assassination. But who was he and why did his death cause such controversy? Former spy Alexander Litvinenko was killed in November 2006, leading to a clouding of relations between London and Moscow. The 43-year-old had been an officer with the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, but he fled to Britain where he became a fierce critic of the Kremlin. In his final years he also became a British citizen. After he was killed by radioactive polonium-210 , believed to have been administered in a cup of tea, it emerged the father-of-one was being paid by the British secret service MI6.

'Serious poisoning' It is alleged Mr Litvinenko was investigating Spanish links to the Russian mafia and had planned to fly to Spain with former agent Andrei Lugovoi - the main suspect over his murder. At a central London hotel on 1 November 2006, he took tea with Mr Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, who was also a former Russian agent. Mr Litvinenko fell ill soon afterwards and spent the night vomiting. Three days later he was admitted to Barnet General Hospital in north London, where his condition gradually became a cause for concern. On 11 November he was interviewed by the BBC Russian Service and said he was in "very bad shape" after a "serious poisoning". Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Litvinenko had moved to the UK in 2000 During that same interview, Mr Litvinenko - a critic of the Putin regime - said he had been looking into the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya , who had received death threats before being shot at her Moscow apartment block the previous month. On 17 November he was transferred to University College Hospital in London after his condition worsened.

He died six days later, with his wife Marina, father Walter, and son Anatoli at his bedside. His widow has said he blamed the Kremlin as he lay dying in hospital, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for "everything that happened to him". Russia denies any involvement. Assassination plot claims Born in the city of Voronezh in 1962, Mr Litvinenko joined a military unit of the Soviet Union's interior ministry in 1980 and reportedly joined the KGB eight years later. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel when the KGB became the FSB in the 1990s. Mr Putin was his ultimate boss at the FSB but they reportedly fell out over corruption within the FSB. In 1998, Mr Litvinenko was arrested on charges of abusing his office after exposing an alleged plot to assassinate Boris Berezovsky, the Russian tycoon who was found dead at his Ascot home in March 2013. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Police investigating the poisoning sealed off several premises, including this Itsu restaurant, for a period afterwards He spent nine months in a remand centre before being acquitted.

After leaving the service Mr Litvinenko wrote a book, Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, in which he claimed FSB agents had been responsible for the bombing of apartment blocks in Moscow and two other cities in 1999. The bombings were blamed on Chechen separatists and his book claimed they were used as a pretext for the second Russian invasion of Chechnya. Mr Litvinenko fled to the UK in 2000, claiming persecution, and was granted asylum. He is understood to have taken British citizenship in 2006. After his death, suspicion fell on Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun, the two Russians he had met for tea at the Millennium Hotel. The inquiry into Mr Litvinenko's death heard that he may have also been poisoned with polonium in the October before he died, at an earlier meeting with the suspects at a private security firm in Mayfair, central London.

The Litvinenko case 23 Nov 2006 - Litvinenko dies three weeks after having tea with former agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun in London 24 Nov 2006 - His death is attributed to polonium-210 22 May 2007 - Britain's director of public prosecutions decides Mr Lugovoi should be charged with the murder of Mr Litvinenko 31 May 2007 - Mr Lugovoi denies any involvement in his death but says Mr Litvinenko was a British spy 5 Jul 2007 - Russia officially refuses to extradite Mr Lugovoi, saying its constitution does not allow it May-June 2013 - Inquest into Mr Litvinenko's death delayed as coroner decides a public inquiry would be preferable, as it would be able to hear some evidence in secret July 2013 - Ministers rule out public inquiry Jan 2014 - Marina Litvinenko in High Court fight to force a public inquiry 11 Feb 2014 - High Court says the Home Office had been wrong to rule out an inquiry before the outcome of an inquest July 

2014 - Public inquiry announced by Home Office January 2015 - Public inquiry begins Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary said the post-mortem examination carried out on Mr Litvinenko's body had been correctly described as the "most dangerous...

ever undertaken in the Western world". He and his colleagues had to wear white suits, protective gloves and specialised hoods with air pumped into them through a filter during the process. Results of that examination suggested Mr Litvinenko had died after being poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium-210 . A frantic police investigation led to a number of premises being briefly sealed off while forensic scientists tested for traces of the radioactive material. Locations which tested positive included the Millennium Hotel, the Abracadabra lap-dancing club and the Emirates football stadium, where Mr Lugovoi had watched Arsenal play CSKA Moscow. It also emerged he had met Italian academic Mario Scaramella at an Itsu sushi restaurant in central London, where he is said to have received documents about the death of Mrs Politkovskaya, a long-term critic of the FSB. Traces were also found on two planes at Heathrow Airport, at the British embassy in Moscow and at a flat in Hamburg, Germany, linked to Mr Kovtun. Around 700 people had to be tested for radioactive poisoning but none of them was seriously ill.

Extradition denied After a two-month investigation, Scotland Yard detectives handed over a file to the then director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, who announced in May 2007 that he was recommending Mr Lugovoi be charged with murder. Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun both denied any responsibility for the death. At a news conference in Moscow, Mr Lugovoi repeatedly stressed his innocence and claimed Mr Litvinenko was a British spy who might have been killed by the British security services. The office of the prosecutor general in Moscow was quick to declare that Mr Lugovoi could not and would not be extradited because the constitution prevented the extradition of Russian citizens. In July 2007, British-Russian tensions turned into an ugly spat with four Russian and four British diplomats expelled from their respective embassies. The UK broke off links with the Russian security services - although there was limited contact during the Sochi Winter Olympics. Image copyright AP Image caption Andrei Lugovoi has denied any involvement and has accused the British security services After a hard-fought legal battle by Mrs Litvinenko, a public inquiry took place.

The British government had originally rejected the idea of an inquiry, suggested by the coroner in charge of the case, Sir Robert Owen. He had argued this was the only way of considering secret material that the government had demanded be kept out of the inquest. The material can be considered in closed session during an inquiry but not during an inquest - this includes material pointing to a possible role of the Russian state in the killing. The inquiry, set up by the government , opened at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in January 2015, led by Sir Robert. A year later, on 21 January, it reported its conclusion that Mr Litvinenko's murder was "probably" approved by President Putin. Mrs Litvinenko said: "The words my husband spoke on his deathbed when he accused Mr Putin have been proved by an English court." But the Russian government said the case had been "politicised" and had "overshadowed" relations between Russia and the UK.

| Investigative , France , Israel , Russia A famous case of polonium poisoning involved Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko [Getty Images] It has been used to kill a Russian former secret agent in a London hotel bar and is believed to have caused the death of several scientists, but despite the media attention it has drawn in recent years, only a few people have died from polonium poisoning. The radioactive element was discovered by Marie Curie in the late 19th Century. It was relatively unknown for over a century, but is now notorious for its ability to kill. In some ways it is the perfect poison. Not only does the radioactive element go undetected by the most commonly used beta and gamma radiation detectors, its effects on humans is also difficult to diagnose, making it an unobtrusive, even insidious toxin. There is tremendous secrecy surrounding the medical files of those who have purportedly died from exposure to the substance. Despite that, medical evidence, witness reports and leaked diplomatic cables suggest that, in addition to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, several others have also died due to polonium.

Russian spy The most famous case in recent memory involved Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian secret service agent turned dissident who lived in exile in the UK. Litvinenko, a long-time adversary of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, died in London on November 23, 2006. He fell ill earlier that month, shortly after a meeting with two former KGB agents in a bar of London's Millennium Hotel. The agents are said to have poisoned him by slipping polonium-210 into his tea. Alexander Litvinenko several years before he fell ill after being poisoned with polonium-210 [AP] Litvinenko was taken to hospital and initially suffered from severe diarrhoea and vomiting. The doctors diagnosed him with a stomach infection. As his condition worsened, his white blood cell count plummeted, making him susceptible to infection. "His skin had turned yellow, indicating liver dysfunction, and he was tested for the two most likely causes, hepatitis and Aids, but neither was the case," John Emsley wrote in Molecules of Murder, which includes a chapter on polonium poisoning.

"Then his hair began to fall out." Doctors eventually decided that Litvinenko was suffering from radiation poisoning, and further tests identified polonium as the culprit. Polonium-210 was later found at a number of London sites the late spy had visited, as well as in two British Airways planes that flew the Moscow-London route. His medical records were never released to the public, preventing the data in the case from being used for comparison with other possible polonium poisonings. Accidental exposure The first person believed to have died of polonium poisoning was Irene Joliot-Curie, the daughter of scientist and chemist Marie Curie, to whom the discovery of polonium is attributed. Like her famous Nobel Prize-winning mother, Irene Joliot-Curie, earned her fame in science and shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry with her husband in 1935 for the discovery of artificial radioactivity. Joliot-Curie spent her life researching radioactivity and other dangerous materials, but it came at a high price. In 1946, Joliot-Curie was diagnosed with leukaemia. She has been exposed to polonium in an incident in which a capsule containing the element had burst in her laboratory.

It resulted in a long period of sickness, after which she eventually died in France in 1956. The French scientist lived long enough to see her mother’s discovery put to use by allied forces in World War II, in their race to build nuclear weapons. Polonium was used as a trigger for the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. It later became a crucial element for other nations striving to "go nuclear". Israeli deaths In his book The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel went nuclear and what that means for the world, Israeli journalist Micheal Karpin writes about a 1957 radioactive leak at the Weizmann Institute, Israel’s leading research laboratory operated by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) south of Tel Aviv. In what is believed to be Israel’s first nuclear accident, several scientists working in the lab were contaminated with polonium and later died of cancer. Scientists at work in the modern day Weizmann Institute south of Tel Aviv [YouTube/Weizmann Institute] According to Karpin, professor Dror Sadeh, who headed the laboratory, used polonium-210 to research the energy levels of radioactive materials.

The Weizmann Institute failed over a long period of time to measure radiation levels in the lab, which was eventually found to be contaminated. "Traces of radioactivity were found on Sadeh's hands, and on objects he had handled at the home he and Haya [his wife] had rented at kibbutz Naan, near the institute," Karpin wrote. Following the leak, the laboratory was closed and results of the investigation conducted by the AEC into the incident were kept secret, even within the institute. Only a month after the lab was closed, one of the students working there died of leukaemia. Professor Yehuda Wolfson, Sadeh's direct supervisor and professor Amos de Shalit, the department's director, both died of cancer a few years later. According to Karpin, Sadeh, also contracted cancer and died prematurely, though no direct link to polonium-210 was ever officially confirmed. This is the overarching enigma of polonium. While modern instruments can help detect the element itself, death due to polonium's toxicity is difficult to establish. The element is only possessed by certain states, nuclear elites, making it traceable.

So it is not the ideal tool for political killings. Polonium takes nuclear capability to develop and considerable scientific know-how to handle safely. It is by no means a poor man's poison. Follow David on Twitter: @DavidPoort Source: Al Jazeera Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions . MORE FROM AL JAZEERA High Court judge to head Litvinenko inquest — RT News Tags Crime , Scandal , Litvinenko case , Russia , UK , Politics , Berezovsky ­The judge, Sir Robert Owen, will hold a preliminary hearing in public to give "directions as to the conduct of the inquest," says the Judicial Communications Office. The preview is scheduled for September 20. The inquest aims to shed more light on Litvinenko’s death as, so far, the coroners only agree that he died of polonium poisoning.

The investigation will decide if it was a deliberate murder, or death by misadventure, suicide or something else. For the upcoming preview, coroners, the family and legal representatives will be summoned. The presiding coroner – in this case, Judge Sir Robert Owen – will be expected to decide on the scope of the inquest, time frames, the evidence and the witnesses to be heard, and whether the inquest will be heard before a jury. Litvinenko is thought to have been poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in November 2006. He felt unwell immediately after having tea with two Russians at the Millennium Hotel in London. His death 22 days later sparked massive alarm that such a highly toxic material could be brought into the UK without being traced. The case came to be branded as “nuclear terrorism.” The two Russians were later proved to be Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, former FSB agents who also used to be Litvinenko’s contacts while he was in service. London has been pressing Moscow to extradite Lugovoy for prosecution, but Russia said such an extradition would contradict its constitution. Lugovoy denies his involvement in Litvinenko’s death.

He maintains that Litvinenko had acquired the polonium and ended up poisoning himself. A lie detector test in April also showed Lugovoy did not contribute into the incident. ­ Former Soviet KGB agent and current Russian MP Andrey Lugovoy gestures while speaking at a press conference in Moscow (AFP Photo / Aleksey Sazonov) ­ Litvinenko, who was aged 43 at the time of his death, was a critic of Vladimir Putin, and had sought to expose what he called wrongdoing within the FSB security service. Litvinenko had worked both for the FSB and its predecessor the KGB before he fled Russia in 2000. On his deathbed, Litvinenko blamed Putin for his demise. But in recent developments, Litvinenko’s father, Valter has accused Boris Berezovsky , a self-exiled Russian tycoon and Litvinenko’s former boss, for the poisoning. Litvinenko’s case has chilled the relations between the two countries and led to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.

After meeting President Vladimir Putin during the Olympic Games in London, Prime Minister David Cameron said the incident “still stands between Britain and Russia.” The UK first announced plans for a full official inquest in October 2011. British intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6 were also called to conduct their own inquiries and release any files which could cast light on the incident. ­ Litvinenko Killed 'After Second Poisoning' Weather Litvinenko Killed 'After Second Poisoning' The claim is made as the final hearings into the radioactive poisoning of the former Russian spy in London draw to a close. 04:23, UK, Thursday 30 July 2015 Image Caption: Police believe Alexander Litvinenko had been poisoned twice Mail By Mark White, Home Affairs Correspondent Scotland Yard detectives believe Alexander Litvinenko had been poisoned twice, the counsel for the Metropolitan Police has told the inquiry into the former spy's death. Richard Horwell QC said there was a failed attempt to kill him on 16 October 2006, followed a fortnight later by a successful attempt when polonium-210 was dropped into his tea at the Millennium hotel in London's Mayfair.

Mr Horwell, who was speaking as the public phase of the inquiry draws to a close, said police want to see the two prime suspects, Russians Andrei Lugavoi and Dmitry Kovtun, stand trial for murder. "On the evidence, there can be no doubt that Litvinenko was unlawfully killed and the science is such that the finger points unwaveringly to Lugovoi and Kovtun," he said. The two suspects have previously claimed Mr Litvinenko may have committed suicide, but Mr Horwell said: "(He) had everything to live for and was in good health. Devoted to his family and immensely proud of his son. Video: July: Litvinenko's Widow Speaks "Polonium is an exceptionally rare substance ... which is very difficult to acquire." On claims by the pair that Mr Litvinenko was involved in the polonium trade, Mr Horwell said: "There is no evidence to support this fanciful theory ... it's the claim of desperate men and must be ignored. "However many state honours Putin might pin to Lugovoi's chest for services to the motherland or however many times Kovtun promises to blow apart this inquiry, they have no credible answer to the science.

It is untainted and damning." Mr Horwell told the inquiry that many lives were put at risk when the two suspects decided to use a deadly radioactive poison on Mr Litvinenko. "Anyone who arranges to bring polonium-210 into a city centre does so without any regard for human life," he said. Video: April: Litvinenko Suspect Speaks Addressing claims by the counsel for the Litvinenko family, Ben Emmerson QC, that the murder was effectively "a nuclear attack on the streets of London", Mr Horwell said: "That claim is justified. "There is evidence that polonium may have been used in the past as the murder weapon of choice on other victims and had it not been identified on this occasion it would doubtless have been used again in the future." Earlier Mr Litvinenko's widow said the six-month, London-based hearing had "shone a light" on the lengths the Kremlin will go to silence dissent. Marina Litvinenko told Sky News she does not believe the two men accused of killing her husband will be brought to justice anytime soon, but said the inquiry has helped ensure the truth is more widely known.

"I knew from the very beginning the people who committed this crime will never be extradited from Russia. My satisfaction is bringing knowledge of this crime to people who have been waiting," she said. Video: Alexander Litvinenko Inquest Mr Litvinenko died in London's University College Hospital in November 2006, three weeks after being poisoned by the deadly radioactive isotope polonium-210. A former senior member of Russia's security service, the FSB, Mr Litvinenko publicly accused his spy masters of corruption, before fleeing his homeland and seeking political asylum in the UK. During his time in Britain, he became an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and accused his former boss, Russian President Vladimir Putin, of leading a mafia state. His widow also claimed he became a paid informant for the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. The public inquiry into Mr Litvinenko's death, chaired by High Court Judge Sir Robert Owen, has heard much of the evidence UK authorities gathered during their criminal investigation into the poisoning. Video: Litvinenko's Speech In London The investigation determined that Lugovoi and Kovtun, two former Russian spies, were prime suspects in the murder.

Both have been charged by UK prosecutors in absentia, but the Russian government has refused to extradite them to Britain to stand trial. The public inquiry was told that Lugovoi and Kovtun had a business meeting with Mr Litvinenko on 1 November 2006, the day investigators believe he was poisoned. CCTV footage showed the men arriving for the meeting at the Millennium hotel and both were seen in the toilet where police believe the poison was prepared, before being put into Mr Litvinenko's tea. Sir Robert Owen is likely to give his formal ruling on the evidence he has heard towards the end of this year. Top Stories Litvinenko 'may have been poisoned twice' - BBC News BBC News Litvinenko 'may have been poisoned twice' 27 January 2015 Close share panel Image copyright AP Ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko may have been poisoned with polonium "not once but twice", the public inquiry into his death has heard. Mr Litvinenko died from radiation poisoning in a London hospital in November 2006, nearly three weeks after drinking tea laced with the substance. Two Russians, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, have denied any involvement.

The 43-year-old may also have been poisoned in October that year, counsel to the inquiry Robin Tam QC said. Image copyright FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA Image caption Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina and her son Anatoly spoke to reporters outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday Mr Litvinenko had fled to the UK where he became a vocal critic of the Kremlin and worked for the UK intelligence service MI6. He had recalled feeling unwell around the time of a meeting at a security company in mid-October and "vomiting on one occasion about two or three weeks before being hospitalised," Mr Tam said. "Hair samples that are available indicate that Mr Litvinenko may well have been poisoned twice and that the first occasion being much less severe than the second." 'Worldwide concern' BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera earlier said investigators had followed a radioactive trail across London. It suggested Mr Litvinenko was poisoned not on the first attempt, but on the third, he said. The two men suspected of killing Alexander Litvinenko made three trips to London in the run up to his death and brought Polonium to try to kill him each time, the BBC understands.

The judge-led inquiry was officially opened by presiding judge Sir Robert Owen at the Royal Courts of Justice. Sir Robert said Mr Litvinenko's death from radiation poisoning in London in 2006 had attracted "worldwide interest and concern". Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina says he blamed the Kremlin as he lay dying in hospital, but Russia denies any involvement. Media captionSir Robert Owen said sensitive evidence had established a "prima facie case" as to the culpability of the Russian state Her lawyer has described his murder as "an act of state-sponsored nuclear terrorism on the streets of London". Mr Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210, following a meeting with two Russians at the Millennium Hotel in central London. The pair, Dmitry Kovtun and former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi - whom the UK police have identified as suspects in the case - have been invited to give evidence via videolink from Russia, Sir Robert said. Mr Lugovoi told Russian television station LifeNews TV on Tuesday that there could be no fair trial in Britain. "They classified the materials, saying Litvinenko co-operated with English intelligence. How can it be investigated impartially after that?" he said.

"This is why we pulled out in protest - we want it to be investigated but we want it to be impartial and, moreover, we want it investigated in Russia." Many theories Sir Robert said sensitive evidence had established there was a "prima facie case" as to the culpability of the Russian state in Mr Litvinenko's death. The judge said the use of polonium could have killed large numbers of people "or spread general panic and hysteria among the public". "The issues to which his death gives rise are of the utmost gravity and have attracted worldwide interest and concern," he said. Sir Robert was originally appointed as the coroner at Mr Litvinenko's inquest but he called for a public inquiry because the inquest could not consider sensitive evidence due to national security fears. The UK government resisted the move at first but later changed its stance last July, amid worsening relations with Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.

The Litvinenko case 23 Nov 2006 - Mr Litvinenko, 43, dies three weeks after having tea with former agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun in London 24 Nov 2006 - His death is attributed to polonium-210 22 May 2007 - Britain's director of public prosecutions decides Mr Lugovoi should be charged with the murder of Mr Litvinenko 31 May 2007 - Mr Lugovoi denies any involvement in his death but says Mr Litvinenko was a British spy 5 Jul 2007 - Russia officially refuses to extradite Mr Lugovoi, saying its constitution does not allow it May-June 2013 - Inquest into Mr Litvinenko's death delayed as coroner decides a public inquiry would be preferable, as it would be able to hear some evidence in secret July 2013 - Ministers rule out public inquiry Jan 2014 - Marina Litvinenko in High Court fight to force a public inquiry 11 Feb 2014 - High Court says the Home Office had been wrong to rule out an inquiry before the outcome of

 an inquest July 2014 - Public inquiry announced by Home Office January 2015 - Inquiry starts.

Judge expects to conclude open hearings by early April and report before end of 2015 BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera: Will inquiry find answers? Robin Tam QC said many theories had been put forward about what happened to Mr Litvinenko, including suggestions that he had committed suicide, or accidentally poisoned himself when handling the radioactive substance as part of a smuggling deal. "As we shall hear over the coming weeks, for some of these theories there is considerable supporting evidence, for others less, and for yet others none at all," he said. Mr Tam said Mr Litvinenko and his family had fled Russia and their journey to the UK "would not disgrace the pages of a thriller". They arrived in the UK in November 2000 and claimed asylum. Mr Litvinenko and his family were granted British citizenship just weeks before he died.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption UK police identified two suspects in the case - Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun - but both deny any involvement and remain in Russia Mr Tam listed numerous issues which would have to be considered by the inquiry, such as Mr Litvinenko's relationship with the late Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky and his links to journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was killed in 2006. The inquiry heard other considerations included Mr Litvinenko's criticism of President Putin's regime. "Could the Kremlin have regarded him as an irritant or worse?" asked Mr Tam. The QC said evidence would be heard - both in the open and closed sessions - that Mr Litvinenko had been working for MI6 - a claim which the government refuses to confirm or deny. He asked: "If Mr Litvinenko was working for MI6, could this have become known in Russia and might this have provided a motive to anyone in Russia whether in authority or otherwise for wishing Mr Litvinenko dead?" The inquiry heard one of the suspects, Mr Lugovoi, had alleged that the UK intelligence services were involved in Mr Litvinenko's death.

It will also hear evidence that Mr Litvinenko could have been assisting the Spanish security services with investigations into organised crime, as well as taking on private security work for Western businesses. Alexander Litvinenko 'was poisoned twice with polonium-210' inquiry hears - Telegraph Law and Order Alexander Litvinenko 'was poisoned twice with polonium-210' inquiry hears Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is thought to have been poisoned with polonium-210 on October 16 and November 1, 2006 By Gordon Rayner, and Tom Whitehead 6:44PM GMT 27 Jan 2015 Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned “not once, but twice” with radioactive polonium-210 by a Russian “death squad” sent by Vladimir Putin, an inquiry into his killing has heard. The former KGB spy had already survived one attempt on his life by the time he ingested a fatal dose of the rare isotope, but mistakenly thought he was suffering from food poisoning when the first murder attempt made him sick.

Samples of his hair proved that polonium had entered his body on two separate occasions weeks apart, the inquiry into his death in 2006 was told. For the first time, it also emerged that one of the two prime suspects in the killing had approached a contact in Germany and asked if he knew a chef in London who could slip a “very expensive poison” into Litvinenko’s food or drink. On the first day of the inquiry, which replaces an inquest into the 43-year-old’s death and has the power to hear secret evidence from intelligence sources, the chairman Sir Robert Owen was given the most detailed account to date of the events surrounding the “state sponsored” assassination. Related Articles Alexander Litvinenko Inquiry: as it happened 27 Jan 2015 He was told that Andrey Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard, and former soldier Dmitry Kovtun slipped into the country twice with supplies of polonium-210 and administered the fatal dose in a pot of green tea during a meeting with Litvinenko at London’s Millennium Hotel on November 1, 2006.

But Robin Tam QC, council to the Inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, disclosed that Litvinenko had been the subject of an earlier assassination attempt, during a meeting with Lugovoy and Kovtun at a business premises on October 16 that year. Lugovoy and Kovtun had flown into the country on that date, and checked into the Best Western Hotel in Shaftesbury Avenue. According to Mr Tam, they had smuggled polonium-210 in their luggage, and left traces of it in their adjacent rooms, 107 and 108. The radioactive material is easily concealed because its alpha radiation is simple to contain and it does not emit gamma radiation of the sort that might be picked up by airport scanners. Litvinenko had agreed to meet the two men in the boardroom of Erinys, a private security company, where they allegedly slipped him a dose of the poison, which is deadly if ingested in sufficient quantities. Mr Tam said: “One of the most significant things the evidence suggests is that Mr Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium not once but twice.

“It suggests two things - attempts to poison Mr Litvinenko were made at both meetings and that those attempts met with some success on both occasions. “Hair samples that are available indicate that Mr Litvinenko may well have been poisoned twice and that the first occasion being much less severe than the second.” On the evening of October 16, Litvinenko, 43, vomited when he got home and put it down to food poisoning. The two men left the country on October 18, but on October 30 Kovtun, who had previously lived in Hamburg where he worked in a restaurant, returned to the German city and met a former colleague, referred to only as D3. Mr Tam said: “Mr Kovtun raised the subject of Mr Litvinenko, who was unknown to D3.

Mr Kovtun said that Mr Litvinenko was a traitor with blood on his hands who did deals with Chechnya.” Kovtun asked D3 whether he knew any cooks working in London, because: “He had a very expensive poison and that he needed the cook to put the poison in Mr Litvinenko's food or drink.” D3 thought at the time that Kovtun was “talking rubbish” and only later reported the conversation to the authorities. He did know a chef in London, and gave Kovtun his number, which Kovtun later called to ask for a meeting. Two days later, on November 1, Kovtun flew from Hamburg to London, where he met Lugovoy, who had already arrived and was staying with his family at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square. On November 1 Kovtun and Lugovoy met Litvinenko in the hotel’s Pine Bar. Litvinenko told police there was a silver-coloured teapot and some cups on the table when he arrived at the bar.

He said: “Andrey asked, 'Would you like anything?' I said 'I don't want anything', and he said, 'Okay, well we're going to leave now anyway, so there is still some tea left here, if you want to you can have some'. “And then the waiter went away, or I think Andrei asked for a clean cup and he brought it. He left and when there was a cup, I poured some tea out of the teapot, although there was only a little left on the bottom and it made just half a cup. “It was green tea with no sugar and it was already cold by the way. I didn't like it for some reason…maybe in total I swallowed three or four times. I haven't even finished that cup.” He added: “I don't like when people pay for me but in such an expensive hotel, forgive me, I don't have enough money to pay that. “Later on, when I left the hotel, I was thinking there is something strange. I had been feeling all the time, I knew that they wanted to kill me, actually.

But could I have told this?” When Litvinenko fell ill, doctors spent weeks trying to diagnose the cause of his illness, but initially discounted radiation poisoning because there were no traces of gamma radiation. It was only after an “inspired hunch” by an expert that Litvinenko’s urine was tested at the Atomic Weapons Establishment for the much rarer alpha radiation of the kind emitted by polonium. Tests at the venues visited by Lugovoy and Kovtun showed that in parts of the boardroom where they met Litvinenko on October 16 there was “full scale deflection” of the instruments – in other words the readings were off the scale. Similar levels of alpha radiation were found in the spout of a teapot at the Millennium Hotel, with lower levels of contamination found in the Pine Bar and Kovtun’s room, 382. Litvinenko suspects Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun - BBC News BBC News Litvinenko suspects Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun 21 January 2016 Read more about sharing.

Close share panel The chairman of the UK public inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko has said he is sure that it was Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun who poisoned the former Russian spy. Judge Robert Owen said they had placed polonium-210 in a teapot at a meeting in the Pine Bar in London on 1 November 2006. Mr Litvinenko, 43, died days later. Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun have long been named by British police as prime suspects but attempts to extradite them from Russia have failed. Both deny involvement. Andrei Lugovoi Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Lugovoi said the accusations against him were "absurd" Born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1966, a childhood friend of Dmitry Kovtun. The pair both joined the KGB in the late 1980s. In the first half of the 1990s his duties included providing personal security for top officials. He later went into the private security business. He served as head of security at Russian TV channel ORT and knew Mr Litvinenko for 10 years before the latter left Russia.

Mr Lugovoi said this was just an acquaintance and he had neither personal nor business contacts. Mr Lugovoi said the pair had no communication at all after Mr Litvinenko went to the UK until an "unexpected" call from the latter arranged the meeting in November 2006 in London. In an interview with Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, Mr Lugovoi insisted: "I can assure you with 100% certainty that he didn't order anything and we didn't offer anything to him either." Traces of polonium-210 were found in hotels, dining rooms and aircraft used by Mr Lugovoi in 2006. He himself was treated in Moscow in December 2006 for radiation poisoning. After Mr Litvinenko's death, Russia's ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party invited Mr Lugovoi on to the 2007 candidate list for election to the federal parliament, the Duma. As an MP he has parliamentary immunity.

Media captionThe BBC's Daniel Sandford travelled to Russia's Kamchatka peninsula to speak to Andrei Lugovoi In March 2015, President Vladimir Putin showed his support for Mr Lugovoi by awarding him a medal for "services to the motherland". Responding to the inquiry, Mr Lugovoi said the accusations against him were "absurd". "As we expected, there were no surprises," he said. "The results of the investigation... yet again confirm London's anti-Russian position, its blinkeredness and the unwillingness of the English to establish the true reason of Litvinenko's death." Dmitry Kovtun Media captionDmitry Kovtun speaking to the BBC's Richard Galpin in March 2015 Dmitry Kovtun was born in 1965 and trained with Mr Lugovoi at the Soviet command academy in Moscow before joining him in the protection unit of the KGB. He was serving in East Germany as the Soviet Union collapsed and fled with his first wife to Hamburg to claim political asylum. Mr Kovtun took various jobs including as a waiter and dishwasher. His then wife said he wanted to be a porn star and had a drink problem, the inquiry heard.

Mr Kovtun returned to Russia, where he was allegedly recruited by Mr Lugovoi. Mr Kovtun said he was involved in the oil and gas industry and these "credentials" were used to help gain a visa for his visit to Britain in 2006. His first wife cast doubt on whether Mr Kovtun's claims of involvement in the industries were true. The inquiry heard he had told a close friend he was carrying "a very expensive poison" shortly before the Litvinenko meeting. Now a businessman in Moscow, Mr Kovtun last year made overtures to help the British inquiry. However, he failed to appear on a video link, saying later he had not obtained permission from the Russian authorities to give evidence. After the UK report was released, Mr Kovtun told Interfax: "I am not involved in Litvinenko's death.

As for the outcome of the public inquiry that has been published in London, Robert Owen could not have reached any other conclusions based on the falsified and fabricated evidence." BBC NEWS | Europe | Litvinenko death fuels UK-Russia spy war Litvinenko death fuels UK-Russia spy war By Frank Gardner Security correspondent, BBC News One year after the agonising death from polonium poisoning of former KGB officer-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko, relations between Britain and Russia have gone from strained to rocky. Litvinenko died in a London hospital in November 2006 Litvinenko was a British citizen (his citizenship came through shortly before he was poisoned) and his death in a London hospital was investigated with some urgency by detectives from Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command. For them, this was not just a case of some Moscow spat spilling over onto the streets of London, it was the deliberate, planned murder of a Briton on British soil using a lethal radioactive substance that potentially endangered the health of many people.

In January 2007 the Metropolitan Police handed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) a file that contained, among other things, the name of their chief suspect in the case: Andrei Lugovoi, another ex-KGB officer who had met Litvinenko for tea at the time he fell ill. Mr Lugovoi, who is now poised to enter Russian politics, denied then and continues to deny any involvement in the murder. Andrei Lugovoi has denied involvement in the murder Yet police detectives who followed the forensic trail of polonium-210 around London and Europe say they can see no other explanation of how Mr Lugovoi and his effects could have been so heavily contaminated with polonium, while he himself escaped poisoning. Polonium emits radioactive alpha particles which can be stopped by human skin or even a piece of paper, but which can be lethal if ingested. Litvinenko is believed to have drunk a heavy dose disguised in a pot of tea. Officials expelled The CPS digested the police file and then, in May, announced it had enough evidence to charge Mr Lugovoi with murder, and instructed its lawyers to request his extradition from Russia to Britain to stand trial.

That, said Russian officials, was not going to happen, as it was "against the Russian constitution". How about a trial in Russia instead, they offered? Out of the question, said the CPS, which feared for the safety of key witnesses like the poisoned Russian's widow, Marina Litvinenko, if she went to Moscow to testify. There were fears Litvinenko's widow would be in danger in Moscow So British officials huffed and puffed, but Russia would not budge. Then in July the UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, announced the expulsion of four Russian diplomats without revealing whether they were spies or not. Russia responded by expelling four Britons from the embassy in Moscow. Russia's President Vladimir Putin - perhaps under-estimating how seriously Britain took Litvinenko's murder, perhaps seeking to calm the situation - dismissed the whole spat as all rather silly. But since the summer relations have not improved, in fact if anything they have deteriorated further - though trade ties continue to flourish. Mr Lugovoi, whose extradition has foundered, has hit back with counter-accusations of "dirty tricks" by Britain's MI6, even suggesting it had a hand in Litvinenko's murder.

MI6 complaint The Kremlin is deeply irritated by the presence in Britain of Mr Putin's opponents, like Boris Berezovsky (who appears to have survived an assassination plot this year). Moscow has complained of a lack of co-operation in its own investigations in Britain. In October, Britain annoyed Russia further by appointing the most famous KGB defector, Oleg Gordievsky, a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Vladimir Putin has been dismissive of the spat Russia responded a month later by awarding the MI6 defector George Blake the prestigious Order of Friendship. To anyone outside Whitehall this might all sound quite childish, a game of tit-for-tat where nobody wins. But on 5 November Jonathan Evans, the director-general of the security service MI5, took the almost unprecedented step of publicly accusing Russia of spying on Britain and of taking up his organisation's time in countering this espionage when it needed to stop al-Qaeda. "Since the end of the Cold War we have seen no decrease in the numbers of undeclared Russian intelligence officers in the UK - at the Russian embassy and associated organisations conducting covert activity in this country," he complained.

"So, despite the Cold War ending nearly two decades ago, my service is still expending resources to defend the UK against unreconstructed attempts by Russia, China and others, to spy on us". Little wonder, then, that intelligence co-operation on counter-terrorism between London and Moscow is effectively frozen, and that mutual suspicions are back close to where they were in the dark days of the 1980s. Suspect in London polonium poisoning murder of Russian agent Litvinenko pulls out of inquest Suspect in London polonium poisoning murder of Russian agent Litvinenko pulls out of inquest Max Seddon, The Associated Press Pin it Share MOSCOW - The main suspect in the grisly poisoning of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London withdrew on Tuesday from the British inquest into the murder, saying that political pressure and state secrecy were preventing him from clearing his name. Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer turned fierce Kremlin critic, died in 2006 after drinking tea poisoned with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 at a London hotel. His family says he was working for Britain's intelligence services, and believes the Russian state was behind his death.

Britain has named Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer and Russian lawmaker, and businessman Dmitry Kovtun, who met Litvinenko hours before he fell ill, as the main suspects. Both deny their involvement and have refused to attend the inquest, though they have sent legal representatives. Russia has turned down British requests to extradite the two men. In Britain, inquests are held to determine the facts whenever someone dies violently, unexpectedly or in disputed circumstances, though they do not apportion blame. But in Litvinenko's case every detail of the inquiry is being scrutinized for clues to the alleged involvement of Russia's secret services. Parts of the inquest have been held in secret after the British government cited security reasons, over the objections of Litvinenko's family and media. Russia's top investigative agency has conducted its own investigation of the crime and said that Lugovoi, who claims he was also exposed to the polonium, was also a victim. Lugovoi claimed the polonium trail in fact led from London to Moscow and scoffed at allegations in the British media that the Russian state ordered Litvinenko's death.

"Litvinenko's not Trotsky - he doesn't have enough stature for secret services to run around the whole world after him with an icepick in their hand," he added, referring to the prominent rival of Stalin assassinated in Mexico in 1941. Brandishing what he said was a classified British police report into Litvinenko's death, Lugovoi said that the accusations against him were "nonsense" and that Scotland Yard was ignoring alternative theories of the crime in order to smear the Kremlin. Litvinenko's alleged work for British intelligence, collaboration with Spanish authorities investigating the Russian mafia and private intelligence work was a "lifestyle that earned him all sorts of open and covert enemies," Lugovoi said. Logovoi alleged that the British inquest has been influenced by Boris Berezovsky, a flamboyant and outspoken Russian oligarch in London exile who had close ties to Litvinenko. Lugovoi says Berezovsky was involved in the poisoning, a charge that Berezosvky has denied. Reblog

Question: What was the name of the former Russian spy who died in London in November 2006 of polonium poisoning?
Answer: Alexander LITVINENKO